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Melrose has won a double boost as its £7.4bn hostile takeover of FTSE 100 engineer GKN enters a critical phase.

Around 98pc of Melrose investors backed the bid in a general meeting held in London, while the FTSE 250 company revealed it had received clearance from the European Commission, having already won approval from antitrust regulators in the US and Canada.

Big hurdles remain, however, with Melrose still needing the green light from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) before it can buy the engineer, which, among other things, makes parts for US military jets.

Officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy have also suggested the deal...